Far fetched, unbelievable and just too way out there for me.
Did not finish as I was just bored and just did not like this at all sorry not for me

I'm not really sure how I feel about this book :)

Overall the story is captivating, the characters really do grow on you. The storyline is unique enough to be intriguing with the action and hidden secrets twisting things every which way.

I felt like this should have almost been a book 2 since it jumps in and it takes the reader a little while to kind of catch up and understand what is going on. While there is a conclusion of sorts, the author left this story wide open for another book or two. The world created is intriguing enough to enjoy the book, the writing is decent if not a little long winded at times. The twists and turns are fascinating.

This is a debut novel by TS Teller this book has interesting world building with an a strong and unique MC.
The book has plenty of action and it kept me interested.
It was a decent first book.

I received this book from NetGalley and BHC Press for an honest review.
#NetGalley
#HiddeninPlainSight

I enjoyed this book. I couldn’t help but love the characters and I enjoyed all the twists and turns. Looking forward to, what I’m guessing will happen, the next book in the series.

Hidden in Plain Sight has an interesting plot but I feel like it should have more explaining for me really to enjoy reading it.
Roberta Lake is a psychic and it let her being computer software and hardware specialist the same way she read someone's mind and she is a psychic assassin. She is complicated I'm not sure if I like her or not but I wanted her to be free. But I liked other side characters (Stu (her brother), Joy (her friend) and Magi (short name for Magellan). Generally written and interesting story but I had an issue with the plot and the way story end. About the plot what bothered me was everyone saying she was so strong that they can't be rival to her but always trying to protect her. Actually we now from the beginning she has some special power but we don't know what is exactly it is. In the story, we learn about her power but even now I'm not sure what so special about her power. I wanted her work together with Three Wise Men and at some point, she works one of them but it was short so my enjoyment was short too. The ending was a little short cut for me so I didn't like it. And some other part didn't feel like what she would do (I think she is more stubborn to do what she did). The story wasn't for me but it is worth giving a try if you find its plot interesting.
Thanks to #NetGalley and the BHC Press providing me a copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Meet Roberta Lake ... or her 'other' side .... Bobbi Waters. Roberta does not what anyone would a normal job. She's actually a highly valued psychic assassin for the CIA. Her mental capacity is not to be challenged. Mind control comes second nature to her. Her assigned assassinations are helped by her alter ego.

Until the Brain Trust turns on her, and she must fight to not only survive, but protect the coveted secrets to unlocking her abilities. If she fails, a force of psychic killers could be trained in her image, and she’ll no longer be around to stop them.

Who can she trust? Will her psychic skills help?

This is a debut novel, well crafted, with nicely paced suspense and action packed pages. Roberta is a unique character, driven to serve justice. This is a psychic thriller, as well as an espionage/spy thriller.

Many thanks to the author / BHC Press / Netgalley for the digital copy of this debut novel. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

This is unfortunately my first DNF. I read 50% and just couldn't force myself through the rest as I simply did not enjoy it, and struggled to understand what was going on. What possibly could have had potential as a concept, needed better context descriptors and character development to help readers understand where the setting is and how the characters are feeling through body language. For this reason, I couldn't connect with characters and found their dialogue/behaviour strange or confusing. I also felt quite bored, and hoped it would pick up, but it was sort of fruitless action throughout, with nothing for the reader to grasp.

The main problem which I feel could easily be improved is to focus on the jumpiness of writing.
For instance "The colorful orbs danced in the early morning sunlight, high in the stillness of the lower atmosphere, startling soaring birds as they drifted on cold air currents. Of course! It was perfect. Who could resist a free prize, especially an adrenaline addict who took every dare offered?"
Breakdown: 1) Orbs - need better clarification, as I was imagining actual glowing balls... for a character who is psychic, my field of possibilities is a little larger so a narrowing and simplicity is needed. 2) The sudden jump from this serene scene to "of course!" didn't transfer well, and further complicated the scene. There were many more mashed together descriptions with thoughts or dialogue just like this.

Sorry I couldn't finish this, I really tried.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and to BHC Press for supplying this free ARC for a review. All the opinions expressed her are my own.

I was not able to finish this book. I saw no warnings about graphic sexual content. When one of the sex scenes involved children who were being abused, I could not continue. This book needs a warning that it contains graphic descriptions of child sexual abuse.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley. My review is voluntary.

Roberta works on computers at the Brain Trust. Actually the company's real initiative is to be able to access people's brains and make them do what the trust commanded them to do.
Roberta and others at the Brain Trust have special abilities. The ability to control minds.
I enjoyed this book immensely. It has a lot of plot twists. It has strong main characters, and the sub characters all have interesting back stories.
I would recommend this book to readers. It has everything a novel needs to be entertaining and hold you through to the very end.

The premise for this story is intriguing. Unfortunately, the execution is lacking. The writing is very disjointed and makes it difficult to track what is happening. The conversations between characters come across juvenile. While the characters are interesting, the story is too all over the place to allow the reader to become invested in them. This one had a lot of potential. For me it missed the mark. I was unable to read the whole book. I skipped many sections hoping it would get better. It just didn't.

This is not my normal genre of a book, however it gripped me from the very beginning. It kept me on my toes and I found it hard to stop reading.

Once I got through the story it made sense, quite often I felt confused. Suspending belief, the story works, and I can see so many other ways things could have been handled or plots developed.

A debut novel by TS Teller, Hidden in Plain Sight tells the story of Roberta Lake, someone with psychic abilities that allows her to wear two hats: computer genius and professional assassin hired by the CIA.

Though the idea of assassins having psychic abilities isn't new, the abilities that Roberta possesses along with the psyche of her character are ingenious, which makes for an intriguing read. She has all the hallmarks of a classic heroine: kind and giving, strong, smart, empathetic and morally upright, and the assassin aspect only adds depth.

Roberta goes to great lengths to conceal the true nature and depths of her abilities in order to prevent the development of less-honourable brain psychics who could be well-trained as CIA killing machines. However, she is not alone in this; she has three CIA handlers who are true to her and will protect her rights always, as well as her supportive family who are hiding a few secrets too.

I am intrigued by the world TS Teller has built around Roberta and I can't wait to find out more. There is so much more that could be explored in this world and I look forward to doing so. This book is an easy read, and I highly recommend it to those who like thrillers and suspense-type novels.

#HiddeninPlainSight #NetGalley

As always, I have received a free copy of this ebook and all opinions are my own.

The blurb and the title got me hooked on this book. But right off the bat I got confused. It took me several chapters to get a feel for the story and the characters. Roberta works for the CIA, but also holds a day job, when she does her mind tricks she is Bobbi. For a couple of chapters I had no idea they were the same person and Roberta was actually in control and protecting herself.
The story starts seemingly in the middle, and I guess that is what the whole book is all about, confuse you a little but entertain and captivate all at the same time. If someone were to tell me this is book 3 of a 4 book series I’d believe it too.

Doesn’t mean it wasn’t a nice read, it actually was, but it was just a bit too confusing at times and let’s say too fast, like skipping over some development in character and story fast. The ending really sets up for a second book, I am not 100% sure I will read it, but it might be interesting. Just too know how the story ends.

First off, the book cover and the blurb are what sucked me in - the eye really captured my attention. And I like the title, though after reading the book, I think "Hidden in Sight" would have been a more appropriate title because for me, this story was anything BUT plain.

It's an intriguing premise and though I personally don't believe in psychics and the paranormal, I do believe it's possible on some level, if not probable. So I'm coming at this read from that opinion.

I was confused right off the bat. The author does a really good job of pushing me right into the middle of Roberta's story but it took me several chapters before I started to get a feel for what was happening. For example, I thought Roberta and Bobbi were two separate people for several chapters. And I couldn't figure out the relationship between Roberta and her boss Magi and why were they jumping right into sex? Though an interesting read, I felt cheated in some respects because I wanted to see more character build up before the action.

Though I certainly understand why the author chose to open the story this way, and it was interesting, if not terribly confusing, I feel like if an author is going to open up her story this way, then allow me a moment to catch my breath and catch up to the premise. I needed to know more about Roberta, how she discovered her abilities, who these characters were and why they were important to the story. Though I'm not a fan of back story, a little back story goes a long way.

This story felt more like part four of a series. And I can definitely tell that the author is working that angle with this premise, and I think it's a good idea, but to me, this was like walking into a movie theater late and jumping right into a story that A. I have no idea what it's about, B. where it's going, and C. why I should care enough to stick around and figure it out.

I wanted to know more about how Roberta discovered her talents. I wanted to see her struggles and her emotional journey that led to her decision to terminate bad people. I wanted to know more about her family history and why this ability is prevalent in her family. I wanted to know how she was recruited and by whom. I wanted to experience her first kill and the creation of Bobbi because after the author reveals who Bobbi is, I totally bought the REASON Roberta created her. I wanted to experience Roberta's moral dilemmas and struggles. I really wanted to see more relationship building between her and Magi - I'm suddenly thrown into the middle of a sex scene and a few chapters later Magi is professing love. Whoa guys, slow down! And I wanted to know why Roberta felt so uneasy about Jenny. Other than that character being annoying, why did her gut tell her there was something off about her co-worker? What actions caused Roberta to be suspicious about Jenny? Simply being annoying doesn't quite justify why Roberta felt the way she did about Jenny.

I felt like a runaway train trying to make out details from a blurred landscape - it was exhausting and frustrating.

And perhaps that's the author's intent, to spoon feed backstory to the reader as the series progresses, I can appreciate that approach, but I needed a bit more backstory IN THIS STORY because it took me a while to play catch up.

This premise also reminds me a lot of the TV show, "Alias" with Jennifer Garner. The character is recruited from college for her raw talent and then cultivated and groomed to be an effective tool for an agency's agenda.  Then, her and her handler develop feelings for one another which complicates their working relationship. That premise has always fascinated me and being a fan of "Alias" I really liked the strong female character and her ability to kick ass virtually all the time.

Which brings me to another point of contention: Roberta is seemingly invincible.

I'm all about strong, powerful women. But Roberta doesn't seem to have any weaknesses. Her ability to compartmentalize and turn her mind off/on is certainly impressive, but short of killing her physical body, what weaknesses does she really have? We're lucky that Roberta has a strong moral compass and she's capable of compassion and love as evidenced by her interactions with her family, but surely there is a physical limitation to her supernatural powers? If so, this story didn't reveal it. And though her ability to control a target's mind, and other entities, (no spoilers), it's almost too much power, too easy, in some ways. I want to see a weakness that is not readily apparent and not many people know about but when someone stumbles across it, it absolutely cripples Roberta and she has to come up with creative ways to handle it.

At this point, Roberta is more machine than human. Which may be what the author is going for, but in order for me to care about her, the possibility of losing her will only enrich the story, in my opinion.

Overall, the story is well written, fast-paced and interesting. I think the author has the potential of taking Roberta on some incredible journeys, I would propose slowing down and allowing the reader to enjoy the experience.

I was captivated right from the start for Hidden in Plain Sight. I loved the blurb about this book and couldn’t wait to dive in, and I was not disappointed. I really loved this book.

Hidden in Plain Sight is the first full fledged novel from poet and essayist T.S Teller. And for a debut novel, it is quite impressive.

Roberta Lake is an assassin for the CIA, although not in the conventional sense. She has psychic abilities, and use them to perform the tasks assigned to her by a black project (one could imagine is an offshoot of the old MK-ULTRA program). She’s not the only operative in this program, as we get to meet several others, each with specific skills, but none being near as powerful as Roberta.

Despite being a dark project, the purpose of Roberta’s employers seems quite benevolent. The people she is asked to dispatch more than deserve their fate.

To distance herself from the killings, Roberta built herself a second, cold, personality, Bobbi Waters. She invokes her when she has to work. At many points along the story, we are led to wonder if Bobbi is just a tool she’s using to cope, or if her mind ended up fracturing. Could the murderous Bobby one day take over (as the Hulk persona takes over Dr Banner in moments of great anger), and maybe permanently ?

Several other questions arise even earlier, from the very premise of the book. How do the « ungifted » supervisors of the program can assert control over such powerful individuals ? (And we indeed witness some tensions at the top management). Are there factions in the agency that would use her for more nefarious goals, and/or try to build an army of similar assassins ? Are there outside parties aware of the program, and eager to acquire similar powers ?

As a consequence of several events, Roberta comes to ask herself the same questions, and starts doubting who she can and should trust, thus sending the story on an enthralling path.

In spite of its supernatural premise, Hidden in Plain Sight mostly reads like a well crafted spy thriller. The final acts are fast paced and action packed. The first chapters captured my attention through curiosity and then, the sheer intensity held me captive for the reminder of the novel. I’ve read this book in one sitting, and this speaks for itself.

T.S Teller managed to build a very interesting universe and I, for one, wouldn’t mind to see more of it. A few clues let me think the author kept some doors open to return to this world at some point, and I would gladly jump aboard for the ride.

Thanks to BHC Press and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for this unbiased review.